


Tell Me In Storms

by NotManTheLessButNatureMore



Series: I Love You [14]
Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Nick is a good best mate, Robin needs a holiday with Ilsa, Strike is a dummy who needs to take better care of himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 20:09:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18972124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotManTheLessButNatureMore/pseuds/NotManTheLessButNatureMore
Summary: “Tell me, in storms, that you love me.” Julia de Burgos.Strike’s disregard for his health comes to a head.





	Tell Me In Storms

It was a strange feeling. Everything was dark and he felt sure he was drifting in sleep but there was an awareness nearby, he would feel the room lurch violently as if he were at sea. A long breathy groan left his throat involuntarily and a hand appeared, gripping his own as another rubbed soothingly up and down his forearm.

 

“Here. Cormoran, please?” Robin’s voice was close to his ear now. He felt her hand on his cheek and he turned away. It was too hot, too rough, even the lightest touch sent a blaze of fire and needles across his skin.

 

“Cormoran you need to drink. Please?” She pressed something against his chapped lips and then cool liquid pooled into his mouth and Cormoran nearly choked as he groaned again at the relief it produced.

 

“That’s really good.” Robin’s voice sounded strange to his ears, unsteady.

 

The water stopped coming and a stillness gave way to another moment.

 

Cormoran became aware of a presence in the room. He flinched as something itched his nose and pulled against his cheeks and behind his ears. He couldn’t smell Robin’s perfume anymore and an unfamiliar hand pulled his arm, shifting him in the bed. Strike opened his eyes, struggling as though they had been glued shut, and squinted even in the darkness of the room. There was a white shape at the bottom of the bed but, he realised, this wasn’t his room. The bed felt strange, harder than usual, and it was too small. He reached out to his right but met nothing but air.

 

“Robin?” He said into the darkness. He became aware of how fast his heart was beating and felt it quicken even more as confusion clouded his mind.

 

“Mr Strike?” The white figure was beside him now and a light above him was turned on. His eyes slammed shut and the figure said something and then he felt the bed being raised slightly and his pillow was pulled lower beneath his head. The heat that was flooding through his body seemed to intensify in his stump and a flash of green walls and German words hushed between nurses came to mind.

 

“It’s ok Mr Strike, you’re alright. Just take some nice deep breaths for me.” A hand gripped his arm but it only served to remind him of Robin’s, which had been there moments ago, or so he thought.

 

“Robin?” He said again as a cold rush crept up his arm, originating from the back of his hand.

 

“-a few hours ago. You’ll see her again in the morning.” The words, coming with a strong Manchester accent, sounded choppy and then hushed tones began to lull Cormoran back to sleep as he floated in the now constant wave of confusion he struggled and failed to overcome. His last thought was again of Robin, she was looking at him with round, teary eyes and her lips were moving but no sound reached his ears.

 

************************

 

“-but if they buy him they won’t have any money for a new striker. But they do need a half decent goalie. Catch 22 mate.”

 

It was still dark the next time awareness returned to him. He was flat on his back and something cold and damp touched his chest causing him to shiver.

 

“Oggy?”

 

Cormoran turned his head, his stiff neck complaining and his eyes barely open, and saw Nick close beside him leaning his elbows on the mattress and holding a blue cloth in one hand. A dim light lit him from behind but the rest of the room held the darkness and silence of the depths of night. 

 

“Hey, you in there?” Nick asked.

 

Cormoran blinked slowly and felt the sickness he’d felt before, whether it was hours or days before he didn’t know, return. Nick jumped up and Cormoran felt the head of the bed raise beneath him and a disposable bowl appeared under his chin. He turned his head away and Nick paused for a moment before placing the bowl by Cormoran’s hand on the bed.

 

“That’s a good sign. You were puking every time you got that look on your face earlier.”

 

A prickling sensation was running up and down Cormoran’s bad leg and a vague thought of panic crept into his mind. Nick’s hand appeared as he stretched over the bed and grabbed Cormoran’s when he reached down and grabbed his thigh.

 

“No, stop. Keep your hands up here, alright?”

 

The words sent a panic, all cold electricity and quick breaths, running through him. Memories returned of the last time he was in a strange bed with someone telling him not to touch his stump. He tried to pull himself up but felt wires and tubes pulling and catching and then Nick’s hands were on his chest pushing him back down with ease, as though he were a weak child.

 

“Just lie back Oggy. You’re alright.” Nick was up close now, his face inches from his, inspecting him.

 

“What’s happening?” Cormoran asked, his voice quiet and hoarse.

 

Nick smiled but Cormoran could see the fear in it before he schooled his features to create an air of reassurance.

 

“Nothing yet, they’re going to make a decision in the morning.” He replied but the smile faltered, falling into a watery frown.

 

Cormoran furrowed his brows and held Nick’s gaze, he wanted to ask ‘what decision?’, ‘who’s deciding what?’ but his mind kept fogging over when he tried to get complete sentences to reach his tongue. There was a cold breeze coming from somewhere to his left and his thoughts drifted to a memory of a beach. Robin was running back to where he sat in the sand, her hair glistening in the sun.

 

“-and cool you down. Then everything will be fine.” Nick was pulling his hospital gown down now and Cormoran looked down, registering for the first time how he looked. There was a damp cloth spread across his chest that disappeared under his gown where it still covered his stomach, wires trailed from his chest to a heart monitor and he had an IV in the back of his left hand and the inside of his right elbow. Blue plastic ice packs were pressed against his thighs, around his groin and tucked into his side and under his arms. He was wearing a light blue gown that was pulled up to his hips just above his boxers leaving his legs bare and the cloudiness in his mind cleared slightly as he saw a white bandage wrapped around his stump with a drainage tube visible.

 

“It’s alright. Everything will be fine.” Nick assured and Cormoran looked at him, feeling as if he was removed from it all. Panic, fear and confusion seemed to be close by, but too far out of reach for him to grasp.

 

A machine beeped somewhere to his left and Nick looked up.

 

“That’s another. There’ll be two more doses at least before they come around. That’s enough time. It’s okay, we’ll be fine.” Nick seemed to be talking to himself now and Cormoran let his eyes slide shut.

 

He opened them again, startled, when something beeped by his ear.

 

“Sorry. There’s no silent mode on these things.” Nick whispered and waved a white plastic thermometer in front of him.

 

“Always... loud.” Cormoran said, his voice mumbled.

 

“What?”

 

“Snore.”

 

Nick frowned and then let out a huff of amusement.

 

“You were the one who would snore worse than dad.” Nick replied and then watched as Cormoran turned and looked at him, his eyes glazed over with fever and his cheeks flushed.

 

“Is he alright?” Cormoran asked.

 

“Dad?”

 

Cormoran nodded and then pulled at his gown.

 

“Yeah, he’s fine.”

 

“Good. I’ll... I’ll have to go home tomorrow.” Cormoran said, his face blank with exhaustion and eyes drooping.

 

“Well, we’ll see how things go.” Nick replied.

 

“Mum will wonder where I am.” He said and Nick stilled.

 

“Your mum?” He asked, an old ache returning to his chest.

 

“Mm. I said I’d be home for... that I’d just stay one night... this time. Mum won’t know...” Cormoran’s hand reached out and gripped the side of the bed.

 

“I’ll tell her you’re with me, alright Oggy?” Nick pulled a cloth from the bowl of icy water he’d left by the bed and ran it across Cormoran’s face.

 

“Mm.” Cormoran sighed.

 

“Just go to sleep Oggy. Pretend we’re in Mr Hitchen’s geography class.” Nick smiled, with as much hope as amusement when Cormoran’s mouth twitched slightly and the ghost of a smile crossed it.

 

“It’ll be alright.” Nick repeated as he replaced the cloth on Cormoran’s chest and watched his friend descend into a deep sleep.

 

********************

 

He felt heavy, as if he could fall through the bed. There were hands on him, moving ice packs and pulling his gown up to cover his chest and down to cover his legs. He felt a sharp pain in his stump but it disappeared just as quick. The room seemed to fall away and Cormoran felt as though he was wrapped in cotton wool, as if the entire world was muffled.

 

Hushed voices encroached upon this other world as his senses slowly returned.

 

“... said he thought they were teens again, but he...”

 

“...the best option... last night I thought...”

 

“...later. Lucy should be here in a bit, the boys will be...”

 

Cormoran took a deep breath and heard the machine to his left emit an extra beep.

 

“Cormoran?” Robin voice was close by and he felt her hand on his chest. He groaned and felt her hand rub soothingly circles.

 

He felt dried out, as if he’d been walking across a desert in the hot sun all his life. His stump ached, it felt hot and he could feel the prickle of pins and needles all along the scars that ran across it. A pain pulsed behind his eyes as he tried to open them.

 

“Corm?” Ilsa was there, Strike realised with confusion. Then he thought of Nick and a flash of his worried face glancing at Strike’s stump last night entered his mind. Cormoran felt a hand on his good knee and flinched.

 

“It’s ok, you’re alright.” Robin placed a kiss on his forehead and Strike’s eyes finally managed to open. The light in the room was piercing and caused the pain in his head to spike. His vision cleared and Robin’s face came into focus. Her eyes were red and she looked pale and Cormoran frowned as he reached out to touch her face.

 

“Hey.” She said, a watery smile appearing on her face as she grabbed his hand and held it to her cheek.

 

Cormoran’s ‘hey’ came out as little more than a garbled grunt and he saw Ilsa grab a cup from the table at the bottom of his bed.

 

“What... what happened?” He asked and then looked down at his legs. The blanket dropped off in the usual way it did at the end of his stump but he could see the drainage tube that snaked out from under the blanket. He absentmindedly registered the quickening pace of the heart monitor as Robin squeezed his hand.

 

“You had an infection, that’s why you collapsed, do you remember?” Robin brushed a tear away from her cheek and stared deeply into his eyes, as though she hadn’t seen them in years.

 

“I...” Cormoran struggled to swim through his recent memories. It was as though they had been edited together in the wrong order; Robin’s voice was calling to him and then Nick was talking urgently to a doctor in the corner of the room. He remembered his head feeling like it was on fire as he pressed his forehead against the fridge door in their flat and then the air being thumped out of his chest as he hit the ground. Various faces hovered above him, some frowning in concentration and others with friendly smiles. Then Nick was wiping his face in the night and Robin was rubbing her thumb across his knuckles. There was a strange sense of urgency to his memories now that he hadn’t felt when he was in the moment.

 

“My leg?” He asked.

 

“It’s going to be fine. The doctor said you’ve turned the corner.” Robin supplied as she rubbed her hand along the inside of his arm. She studied his face and then leaned across and kissed him, holding it for a long moment.

 

“They came so close to taking more of your leg. I was so scared Cormoran.” She whispered to him, her forehead pressed against his and her voice full of emotion.

 

“We’ve all agreed that you’re paying for the next fifty curry nights.” Ilsa interjected trying to lighten the mood.

 

“Mm, really?” Cormoran’s voice betrayed his exhaustion but he managed to quirk an eyebrow.

 

“Yes. And you owe Nick a Spurs season ticket. He stayed after visiting hours and spent the whole night trying to get your fever down so you’d look better to the doctors this morning and they wouldn’t...” Robin’s voice trailed off and her face darkened again.

 

“The perks of knowing the night staff.” Ilsa supplied.

 

“This has... been an expensive hospital visit.” Cormoran said, trying to suppress a yawn.

 

“Yes.” Ilsa agreed with a pointed look that reminded him of his aunt Joan.

 

Cormoran frowned and again looked at the dark circles under Robin’s eyes and her pale face. The seriousness of how bad he had let things get caught up to him. His dry and itchy nose reminded him that he must have been on Oxygen at some point and there was tape around the inside of his elbow where a second IV must have been. He remembered Nick’s worried face, muttering to himself all night that they’d be fine, and how tired he had felt at one point, as if a deep and empty sleep was slowly closing in over him.

 

“Well as much I want to be here when your doctor rips you a new one for not looking after your leg, I should go ring Nick and tell him you’re back in the land of the living.” Ilsa said before kissing Cormoran on the cheek and rubbing a hand across Robin’s back.

 

Ilsa left and the room fell silent. Cormoran noticed the empty coffee cups and food wrappers scattered on the table at the bottom of the bed and suddenly felt a churn of hunger in his stomach.

 

“I could kill for a Mars bar.” He said quietly.

 

“If you ever scare me like that again-“ Robin started.

 

“I won’t, I-“

 

“I mean it!” There was something in Robin’s eyes and her voice that did more to scare him than any doctor or physical therapist had ever done.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“You go straight to the doctor the next time your leg even twinges!”

 

“That’d be every day.”

 

“Cormoran!”

 

“Okay, okay. I’ll take better care of myself.”

 

He ran his nails gently up and down the inside of her arm and waited until she looked at him.

 

“I love you.” Robin said, tears welling up and Cormoran pulled her down to him so she was sprawled awkwardly across his chest, half on the bed and half off, in a hug.

 

“I love you too. More than anything.” Strike said as he pressed a kiss into her hair.

 

“You know what would really make this moment special?” He said.

 

“What?”

 

“A Mars bar.” Cormoran answered and felt Robin’s chuckle vibrate down into his chest.

 

“You and food.” She admonished softly.

 

“I’ll split it with you.”

 

“How could a girl ever refuse such an offer?” She smiled and then Cormoran watched her walk over to a bag that was sat on a chair by the window. She was wearing dark leggings and a long white t-shirt peaked out from under the burgundy jumper of his she had on. Robin returned to his bed holding a Mars bar aloft and he laughed tiredly.

 

“You’re...” He started and then stopped.

 

“I’m?”

 

He looked at Robin and forgot how defeated his body felt. He looked from her hair to her lips to her eyes and the feeling of a now familiar amazement crept up on him. Amazement that he knew how her hair felt in his hands, knew how it looked sprawled across her pillow and how it smelt when she stepped out of the shower. He knew the taste of her lips, the way they felt on his skin and the way she bit her bottom one when she was concentrating. He knew when she was about to impress him with a theory about a case because her eyes would sparkle and he knew how they darkened in bed when he came close to pushing her over the edge.

 

“You’re the love of my life.”

 

Robin huffed a laugh and then opened the Mars bar and broke it in half as Cormoran pulled himself carefully up in the bed, mindful of his leg. She handed him the bigger half and took a bite of her own as she sat on the side of his bed and he settled a hand on her thigh. She watched him rest his head back on his pillow and then the hand holding his chocolate slowly fell and came to rest on his chest as his eyes drifted shut. The machine by the top of his bed gave a beep and Robin imagined that she could see the medication appear as it mixed with his IV fluids. His face was soft now and the lines of pain and dark shadows on his face had receded. Robin smiled to herself and squeezed his hand as she let out a long sigh and felt a weight lift from her shoulders

 

“I love you too.” She whispered into the room.

**Author's Note:**

> My response to Strike not knowing his limits and needing to look after himself more (sorry Strike). 
> 
> Thanks as always for reading!


End file.
